I loved the concept behind this book because it was much closer to the roots of mermaids than other mermaid movies or books I've encountered. Mermaids are water creatures, and with few exceptions, female water creatures are out to drown folks, Disney and Hans Christian Anderson be damned. I loved that there was an escape for these poor girls and that it did not magically fix the trauma they'd been through. I also loved that Luce's new life as a mermaid is still full of trouble and danger.

The darkness in this novel is deep and unrelenting. I wish the cover art had reflected the real tone of the story. I had expected something much more trite and was pleasantly surprised, but from what I gather from other reviews, many readers expected something much more trite and were ticked off that they didn't get it.

But, overall, this book tries to cover too much ground in too little time. Dropping 14 new characters into the story out of the blue is tough to pull off, and I felt that it wasn't necessary, since none of them really added to the story. Many, many plot devices are introduced and then left hanging. I assume the author meant this to be a series, but I don't see anything about a planned sequel. That's a shame, because I think this author shows a lot of promise and, more importantly, guts of solid rock.